Road Warrior

The in basket: I noticed that the new traffic signal at 13th and Warren in Bremerton has traffic detection wires (called “loops”) cut into the asphalt on Warren, even though left turns are forbidden by signs suspended over the intersection there and right turns don’t require a green light.

Having noticed that, I looked at Warren’s pavement just up the street at 16th Street, the entrance to Olympic College. It also has wires to detect southbound traffic, even though the only signal-controlled turn permitted there southbound was eliminated when right turns were given a Yield sign.

I asked what good the detectors do.

The out basket: Gunnar Fridricksson of the city street engineers says, “At 13th Street, the loops are functioning and being used now for vehicle

detection on Warren.  Even though left-hand turns on Warren are prohibited, the signal system still needs to know where the demand is.

“Same story at 16th Street – except for the southbound right turn lane,” he said.  ”That

loop is still there, but I believe has been disconnected in the cabinet, as the Yield sign controls the lane.”

Without the loops, the signal would detect constant traffic on Warren, he said, just as it does when one of the in-pavement detectors fails. It won’t change as needed.

The in basket: Sandra Hill was unlucky enough to be among those cited for running the red light while turning right at the 16th Street entrance to Olympic College in Bremerton while that still was a violation.

Her experience serves as a window into what one can expect when so cited, and raises a question about the rules at that intersection now.

Sandra, like many others who have been cited, said that as she looked at the two still photos enclosed with the notice of violation mailed to her, it didn’t look like she had run the red .

“(One) picture shows my car with brake lights on and clearly stopped at the white line while the red light was on,” she said. “Then another photo shows my car turning the corner to go towards the college, while the light was still red.

“The sign at that corner said  ‘Stop On Red.’  It didn’t say ‘No Turn On Red.’

“Now, of course, I’m not sure if that photo stop sign is still working,” she added, “because the city has revamped the entrance to the college, and made a separate right turn lane with a Yield sign at the merge with 16th street.”

The out basket: I advised Sandra to go online or to the municipal court office and watch the video of her infraction. Brake lights mean only that the brakes have been applied, not that the car is stopped. The still photos can be misleading.

Sandra and the judge who heard her case decided the video showed that she had made a rolling stop through the light, and she was fined. As is normally the case when one goes to court and doesn’t try for a not guilty verdict, the amount of her fine was lowered from $124 to $86.

“The court gave me three months to pay it off,” she said. “If I had needed any longer, they have a collection company which has a representative right in the court building, and I could have made arrangements with them to have a longer pay-off time, but they would charge interest.

“By the time I paid the interest, it would have been like paying the whole fine. So, I bit the bullet and made three payments, and did without a few things,” she said.

The red light cameras remain at the 16th and Warren intersection, but the one that caught Sandra is only watching now for straight-through violations. The revised intersection has a Yield sign for right turns, so rolling rights are permitted if the driver yields to traffic that has the green light.

The camera watching northbound traffic there is working the same as before the intersection was changed, watching through traffic.

The in basket: Bob Miller, who lives near Evergreen Park in Bremerton, says the street work on 11th Street to the west has had some repercussions for his neighborhood.

“I have noticed a steady uptick in morning and afternoon traffic

as the trip down Warren north of 11th has become more encumbered with

vehicle volume and traffic lights,” Bob said.

“While I can’t blame anyone from trying to escape the ‘crawl’ that the

Warren rush hour becomes, I urge drivers who are bypassing to respect

the posted speed limits of 25 mph, and 20 mph when in the vicinity of

the park,” he said.

“As warmer weather approaches, Evergreen Park use will increase as it

always does, and more pedestrians will be out and about, especially

those crossing over to their parked cars or CJ’s Evergreen Store,” Bob said.

The out basket: It’s a timely warning, although longer hours of darkness in the winter make it as applicable then.

It’s been difficult for years to get from 11th Street to Burwell Street, so I have developed a zig-zag route along a couple of residential streets to avoid signals and speed humps for trips between those arterials. But I make it a point to stay at or below the 25 mph speed limit when on those streets, something I’m less careful about on arterials like 11th, Sixth and Burwell. I encourage drivers on the narrow streets east of and parallel to Warren to observe the speed limits there, lest more “traffic-calming” devices like mid-intersection traffic circles and more speed humps – or accidents – result.

I expect the widened intersection at 11th and Warren to make Elizabeth and Park less attractive detours for southbound drivers.

Unfortunately. I don’t think it will do as much for northbound traffic in the afternoon rush, and seeking help from Bremerton police speed enforcement may be required then.

The in basket: Curt Bay says he’s been taking the off-ramp more often lately from the northbound side of Warren Avenue Bridge in Bremerton to get to Callahan Avenue. The same off-ramp also serves Clare Avenue, and he’s seen a number of drivers who had come up Clare and merged with Callahan then turn left onto the northbound on-ramp to Wheaton Way. He wonders if that is a legal turn.

The out basket: It’s an unusual intersection, with two streets served by the same off-ramp, and westbound Callahan going  from two-way to one-way traffic going in the opposite direction at that spot. But yes, turning left onto the on-ramp there is legal as long as a driver on Clare yields to cars coming off the bridge on Callahan, and to any oncoming traffic. A U-turn is illegal, though, as there is a sign there prohibiting that.

The in basket: Two commenters on a past Road Warrior column, first names Kari and Robin, have made observations about changes at the 11th Street and Warren Avenue intersection, which has just undergone  a substantial renovation.

Keri wonders about what he thinks are longer waits for the signals to change to green and Robin noticed something I hadn’t, that the dedicated right-turn-only lane from westbound 11th to northbound Warren no longer exists

“I commute through this intersection daily during the week, eastbound,” Kari said. “It seems that the lights for north-south traffic stay green, even when there’s no traffic. Just last Monday, at about 6 a.m., I timed the lights as staying green for 30 seconds without a single car going through the intersection, either north- or southbound. It used to be that the lights would change much quicker when no traffic was detected.
“I’ve learned that if I don’t catch the left turn onto northbound Warren,” he said, ” but the light is still green to go straight, it is much faster for me to go through the light and turn on Park Avenue (even if I have to wait for the turn signal there, as the lights cycle faster) and then back to Warren at 17th, than it is to wait for the lights to cycle back to a green left turn.”

“Aren’t there traffic detectors on the light poles now? ” he asked.

Robin said he asked Chal Martin, city public works director, about removal of that turn lane, and “he told me it was to better line up the lanes.

“I went on the record as being unhappy about losing the right turn lane and mentioned that the lanes lined up fine for my last 50 years in Bremerton,” Robin said.

The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson of the city of Bremerton street engineers had told me a couple of months ago that most of the movements at that intersection would operate on timer during its paving, which required destroying most of the in-pavement wire detectors, called “loops.” Keri’s complaint sounded to me like a residue of that.

But no, Gunnar says,  “The signal there was never put on a time setting, we went directly from using the in-ground loops to the radar detection.

“There have been two changes here with the signal coordination package that we are currently working to adjust,” Gunnar said, “timing and coordination with the new signal on Warren at 13^th Street and tying in coordination with the signals at Burwell and Sixth Street to the rest of the corridor.

“Our eventual goal will be to have the signals from Burwell all the way up to Riddell Road (synchronized),” he said. “We do have adjustments to make and that will be continuing for the next several weeks, as the (electronics) shop schedules this work in with regular maintenance, emergency call-outs, etc.”

And yes, the new radar traffic detectors are mounted on the poles at the 11th and Warren intersection.

As for the missing right turn lane, he said, it was deleted ”to provide a five-foot shoulder area. This will make it easier for buses and trucks to turn northbound onto Warren, along with helping line the lanes up a little better through the intersection.

“If you get a chance to go out and take a look, you will see quite a few tire marks going across the new ADA ramps (for the disabled) and sidewalk at this corner.  It is a fairly tight corner and a tough one to make for larger vehicles with the lane adjacent to the sidewalk.”

Gunnar also noted that the most recent traffic counts done for 11th Street’s three westbound lanes, while dated, showed that of the 5,700 vehicles counted, only 1,800 turned right.

The red light enforcement camera watching westbound traffic is still there and functioning as before, he said.

The in basket: Mike Woodford writes to describe his usual route to work, which takes him up Fourth Street eastbound to reach his parking area at State and Fourth.

“The modifications to the Kiwanis Park on Fourth include several ‘finger pier’ pedestrian paths that narrow the street considerable,” he said. “There are no crosswalks with these paths (pedestrians expect traffic to stop) and the lighting is very poor. There is a 100-yard section of Fourth Street that forces vehicles to play chicken as they try to figure out where the lanes are with oncoming vehicles.

“Is there a plan for this area?,” Mike asked. “Will it be a one-way street?

“Right now it is dangerous.”

The out basket: It’s not completed, and when it is, it will remain a two-way street.

Gunnar Fridriksson of the city street engineers says, “I believe what Mr. Woodford is referencing as “finger piers” is the back-in angle parking sidewalk extensions.

“This area still needs to be signed and striped, along with crosswalks placed. The contractor is winding down work and this is one of the items for them to complete in the next several weeks.

“The street configuration is for two lanes of traffic, one eastbound and one westbound, with parallel parking on the south side of the street and the angle-in parking on the north side,” he said.

The in basket: Dale Gilchrist tells me that he was driving on Warren Avenue in Bremerton one night recently when he nearly hit a pedestrian crossing Warren through the median barrier the city built there between Burwell and Sixth streets.

The walker was dressed in dark clothes and there is very little street lighting there, Dale said. It’s very dark.

I made it a point to go there while it was dark, and I saw what Dale meant. There may be only one street light along that stretch of Warren. I asked the city street engineers if more are planned.

A few weeks earlier, I came to wonder when a driver must stop for a pedestrian crossing at those barriers, day or night.

Where there is no barrier, a driver must stop when a pedestrian is within one lane of his own. So on a three-lane street with a center turn lane, the driver must stop when a pedestrian enters the turn lane. If the walker is proceeding away from the driver’s lane, the car must not proceed until the person has stepped out of the turn lane.

I asked Bremerton police Lt. Pete Fisher if the barrier was equivalent to a center turn lane for purposes of deciding when a driver must stop

The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson of the city street engineers says a recent city traffic study showed little nighttime accident history on Warren at that point.

“The accidents were primarily daytime – very few nighttime accidents,” he said. “I think there were four total for the report period in our traffic study – all vehicle accidents.

“So street lighting was not part of the design effort with the latest improvement. That being said, one issue we have been trying to get resources for is to look at overall street lighting levels citywide to prioritize where we need to be making adjustments. It is on our to-do list, just as we have time to get to it.”

As for my question to Pete Fisher, he said the center island should be treated as a curb, requiring a driver to stop when a pedestrian is standing there, waiting to enter the crosswalk.

The in basket: Doug Whittle and Jeff David both have expressed misgivings to me about the city of Bremerton’s plan to make Washington Avenue in Bremerton a single lane in each direction between Fifth Street and the new Manette Bridge, replacing a lane with wider sidewalks.

“It seems very unwise to clog traffic flow for the vast majority who travel by vehicle in favor of providing the ideal situation for the minority of bikers and pedestrians,” Doug said.

“In years past, I occasionally commuted to my former employment in the shipyard by bicycle,” he said, “At that time, it was truly an obstacle making the crossing over the old Manette bridge where traffic was mere inches away if you rode on the roadway in lieu of walking your bike on the pedestrian sidewalk. With the new bridge, bicyclists ‘have it made,’ in my opinion.

“The short block between Sixth Street and the bridge seems a very minor inconvenience in its shortcomings for pedestrian and bicycle commuters.  It seems ridiculous to squeeze the traffic lanes for vehicles in order to give the small minority the very best conditions.”

“And it will be interesting to hear what those responsible for these dimwit changes have to say when a police car or emergency vehicle gets caught in the one-lane traffic with no means of getting around it, and there is a significant consequence to their response delay,” he said.

Jeff said, “”What happens at Sixth Street when a car wants to turn left onto Sixth and blocks traffic going to the bridge and what happens at the bridge when a vehicle going over to 11th does not have a green (again stopping vehicles turning right onto the bridge)?

“Is it more important to move pedestrian traffic or vehicle traffic? I do think a nice bike/pedestrian sidewalk is great but does that bring more business to the downtown?” Jeff asked.

In passing their comments along to the city engineers, I tossed in my opinion that eliminating ways around cars waiting for traffic to clear before turning is the opposite of what street improvements should be accomplishing.

The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson, the city’s extremely cooperative spokesman for such matters, asked for some patience on this subject.

“I have been getting comments from quite a few commuters that are very concerned about this, but I do not want to speak further until after we have a traffic study completed,” he said. “We are looking at (the state) awarding us design monies sometime in late July/early August.  Then a couple of weeks for consultant selection, eight weeks for council approval, and giving the consultant four to six weeks or so to complete the study – the earliest I can discuss this intelligently is probably sometime just before Christmas this year.”

The in basket: Three readers have complained about non-responsive stop lights in Bremerton that stay red while drivers sit there.

Ron Canfield asks, “What’s the deal with the light at the intersection of 11th Street and Pacific Avenue? When heading east on 11th, the light to turn left (north) onto Pacific engages even when there are no cars turning left, which is the case most of the time. The light stays green long enough for about 40 cars to make the light, causing vehicles heading west on 11th to sit at a light for no reason.”

On at least two occasions, he said, he has turned right and worked his way back onto 11th, and saw in his mirror that the left turn light back at Pacific was still green even as he passed through the light at Warren and even when he got up to Chester Avenue.

Mike Burton says the same thing happens at Sixth and Washington  in one southbound lane of Washington.

“If there are people waiting to turn left onto Washington from 6^th Street and people in the left lane of northbound Washington, the traffic headed southbound on Washington does not get picked up at all unless they are in the left lane, which most don’t use since it disappears so quickly after the intersection with 6th.

“The only time that the southbound traffic in the right lane gets a green light is when the light reverts to its “default” state, which is green for northbound and southbound Washington,” Mike said.

And back in September, Bryan, who didn’t want his last name used, said the light at Burwell and Washington wouldn’t turn green for his wee hours trip home after the swing shift at the shipyard, stalling him on Burwell for a long  time while few vehicles, if any,  passed by on Washington. It had changed almost instantly before, he said.

The out basket:  I asked Gunnar Fridriksson of the city street engineers about Mike and Ron’s complaints, saying it sounded like the in-pavement traffic detectors, called “loops,” in the affected lanes had failed. Bryan had said by then that the problem on Burwell had been fixed in November.

“Both 11^th and Pacific and 6^th and Washington have broken loops, along with Wheaton and Cherry and about 10 more locations in town,” says Gunnar. “We have been adjusting timing at the signals as we have time to, but have not make it to either 11^th or 6^th yet.

“Spending a couple of thousand dollars for loop replacements on signals that are going to be under construction shortly would not be a good expenditure of taxpayer monies.

“The upcoming project for Pacific Avenue is this summer, which will (correct) the malfunctioning intersection at 11^th.  The Washington Avenue project will be correcting the signal at 6^th and Washington.”

The upcoming projects are to make Washington a two-lane street and widen the sidewalks between  Burwell and the Manette Bridge, and to continue the Pacific Avenue improvements done south of Sixth Street to between Sixth and 11th.

The in basket: Tom Baker of the city of Bremerton electronics shop has encouraged me for a couple of years to attend a yearly conference of traffic electronics experts and merchants in Seattle. This year I went (it was Feb. 11) and it was a wealth of information.

The first person I talked with in a large room of industry representatives was Mike Singson, who turned out to have been on the phone with Jeff Collins of the Bremerton electronics shop just 20 minutes earlier to answer a question about Wavetronix. That’s the brand name his company, Advanced Traffic Products, uses for an alternative means to detect traffic at stop lights.

It uses radar, and is an alternative to the decades-old technology of in-pavement wires, called “loops,” and the newer cameras you will see on tall posts atop the signal cross-arms at many Kitsap County intersections.

The city of Bremerton will try Wavetronix on three of the four legs of the Warren Avenue-11th Street intersection currently undergoing a major reconstruction.

It and cameras, being installed overhead, have the advantage of being repairable without having to dig up the intersection. Mike Singson says radar is better because snow, fog, heavy rain, glare and other problems don’t interfere with it, as he says they can with the cameras.

This may be the first installation of it in this county.

Gunnar Fridriksson of the city street engineers says, “Yes, we are installing the Wavetronix at 11th and Warren.

“The eastbound 11th Street loops are in the concrete section of the roadway and are working

fine, so we are not going to replace them. The other three legs of the

intersection are where we are going to use them.

“The southbound Warren (loops) were

destroyed over a month ago with work extending the turn lane, so this

direction is already using Wavetronix temporarily. The other two

legs (westbound 11th and northbound Warren) will have their loops destroyed when we

grind the intersection out to repave.

“With the grind, repaving, etc…, we were looking at seven days at a minimum (and

that would, of course, be subject to weather, as well) of having the

intersection run on a timer, which will be tough on traffic.

“The technology has evolved so much with radar detection and the installation of these units have so much less impact on traffic versus

cutting loops in,” Gunnar said, “we wanted to try it at this intersection and

the temporary detection seems to be working perfectly so far.”